History

SOLV was founded in 2021 by Alexander D’Hooghe, former MIT faculty member and founder of ORG, a design firm active in complex infrastructure and urban projects in Europe and the United States.

In projects such as the Oosterweel connection in Antwerp, a recurring pattern became unavoidable. Technical excellence was necessary, but not sufficient. Progress and outcomes were shaped by fragmented governance, conflicting stakeholder interests, legal pressure, and sustained public scrutiny. Stakeholder dynamics were not a secondary concern. They were the critical variable.

To work within that reality, a method was developed that converts unstructured stakeholder input—reports, consultations, public reactions—into a formal social model. This model represents stakeholders, their values, positions, and influence as a structured system that can be analysed, compared, and kept traceable across long project trajectories.

As advances in AI and natural language processing made this approach scalable, SOLV was created as an independent platform. SOLV is a spin-off of KU Leuven and builds on established research in social and influence modelling. In December 2025, SOLV secured growth investment from the Gemma Frisius Fund and KU Leuven, enabling the further commercial rollout of the platform across infrastructure, public affairs, and urban development contexts.

Today, SOLV licenses its platform to governments, agencies, infrastructure actors, and advisory organisations in Europe and the United States to structure stakeholder risk in complex decisions.